Phils lose Halladay for 6-to-8 weeks with lat strain

By Kevin CooneyStaff writer

Wednesday

May 30, 2012 at 12:01 AM

NEW YORK — For the past two months, Rich Dubee had publicly dismissed anyone suggesting that the diminished velocity and inconsistent results that Roy Halladay was putting up were signs of a lingering injury in the two-time Cy Young Award winner.

Deep down, however, the Phillies’ pitching coach knew that something was wrong.

“I thought since spring training that there was an issue,” Dubee said. “The ball just hasn’t been accelerating through the zone like his stuff does.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Halladay and the Phillies got the answer — one that will see its 35-year-old ace sit down until after the All-Star break at the earliest.

Halladay was placed on the 15-day disabled list — retroactive to Monday — with a right latissimus dorsi strain after meeting with doctors at Thomas Jefferson Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. The initial treatment is three weeks without picking up a baseball and a minimum of six-to-eight weeks before a return to action.

In the Phillies’ eyes, this was a best-case realistic scenario. A trip to the disabled list seemed to be a given after Halladay departed his start Sunday in St. Louis after two innings. The injury requires no surgery and didn’t involve anything like a rotator cuff.

“We hate to have him down, but it’s nothing that requires anything other than rest,” Phillies assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said.

“If there’s good news from an injury, this is probably good news,” Dubee said.

Still, it puts the Phillies in a spot of having their top four players in salary — Cliff Lee ($21.5 million), Halladay ($20 million), Ryan Howard ($20 million) and Chase Utley ($15.3 million) — all spending time on the disabled list. The final three on that list all have a return date that is unknown at the present time.

“I think being without Utley, Howard and Halladay, that hurts us more than being without Utley and Howard,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.

Suddenly, the rotation that featured four aces at the start of the 2011 is down to two — Lee (who is still looking for his first win on the 2012 season) and Cole Hamels (who is in the final year before becoming baseball’s most cherished free agent).

The hopes of the return of Roy Oswalt to the rotation died Tuesday afternoon when the right-hander reportedly came to terms with the Texas Rangers for a one year, $5 million contract.

In other words, starting pitching — instead of offense — may move to the top of the wish list if Halladay doesn’t get better in that six-to-eight week timeframe.

“Being as I think we’re going to get Utley and Howard back, I think I’d take a pitcher,” Manuel said when asked which he would prefer. “But at the same time, I don’t think you guys realize the pitcher that I want. I want somebody that’s going to help us — I don’t want a player that’s the same player, making a deal just to make a deal. I want a player. I want a consistent player. If he’s a consistent pitcher or if he’s a consistent position player, that’s fine.”

Halladay’s diminished velocity has been talked about for some time now. The Phillies were quick to scoff it off, starting with a report from Fox Sports baseball insider Ken Rosenthal dating back to spring training.

However, things didn’t get better as Halladay kept going and the concern kept mounting.

“His stuff is different than most people’s stuff. His stuff from the cut of the grass to the hitting zone was explosive,” Dubee said. “Now, it is more gradual.”

“If you go back and look at some of his outings it seemed like he just had a bad inning,” Proefrock said. It wasn’t like he was struggling terribly. So from that perspective I don’t think it was any great concern back when things were being reported in spring training about his velocity.”

But Halladay went to Dubee over the last two weeks, complaining about what the pitching coach called “crankiness.”

“He could get heated up, but when he sat down — he couldn’t get it going again,” Dubee said. He couldn’t get the arm speed, the velocity going again and his arm in the right slot. He tried to get (his arm slot) higher — and I’m putting words in his mouth — but couldn’t with some of the symptoms he was having.”

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